New European Citizens’ Initiative for #BasicIncome starts September 25, 2020

After long deliberations and after having discussed various versions, the European Commission has decided on 15 May 2020 to admit the new ECI-UBI 2020/21.
To allow a new ECI for basic income, the objective had to be adjusted in such a way that the European Commission sees possibilities to treat this ECI. The EC should not put items on the agenda for the EU that are non-economic. So the social aspect of basic income was what the rejection rested on.
The solution then came from a different legal description of the objective. There is no longer talk about “Basic Income” but about “Basic Incomes” in plural, so that it is about the various countries themselves and not about the EU as a whole.

Here are some more nice graphics: https://grafana.unconditionalbasicincome.eu/

The results until now:

ECI – European Citizens’ Initiative – Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU
Support this initiative proposed by European Union citizens: https://sign.eci-ubi.eu
The aim is to get 1 million signatures before the enddate of 25 june 2022.
Normally the collection period is 1 year, due to covid/corona the period is extended.
Seven(7) countries need to reach 100% or more of the threshold to make the initiative valid!
Threshold: The threshold value consists of the number of MEPs from a Member State multiplied by the total MEPs. Since 1 February 2020, the European Parliament has 705 members, as set out in the decision of the European Council of June 2018.
All treshholds combined does not make a million!
Target: The target has two options: 1) The linear one is the amount of equally devided signatures per country-threshold to get a million signatures. 2) The proportional one is the amount of signatures per EU-country in reference to the total signatures of EU-citizens.
The high number of target for the EU is when all countries get their propotional target combined.
Need: The number of needed signatures per day has two options 1) to reach the EU-threshold. 2) to reach the million signatures.
ToGo: The number of needed signatures on this day and all following to the end of the initiative to reach the Target.
#MEP: The number of Members of the European Parliament- click on the number for a list.

The decision aims to distribute seats in an “objective, fair, sustainable and transparent manner”. In accordance with the Treaty on European Union, the new distribution of seats respects the principle of degressive proportionality. In addition, large member states have fewer seats in relation to their population than small member states. MEPs from large Member States represent more citizens than Members from small Member States.

NOTE: the results on the pictures can differ because not al apps are updated at the same time!

Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU

Subject Matter:
Our aim is to establish the introduction of unconditional basic incomes throughout the EU which ensure every person’s material existence and opportunity to participate in society as part of its economic policy. This aim shall be reached while remaining within the competences conferred to the EU by the Treaties.

Objectives:

We request the EU Commission to make a proposal for unconditional basic incomes throughout the EU, which reduce regional disparities in order to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU.

This shall realize the aim of the joint statement by the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission, stated in 2017, that “the EU and its member states will also support efficient, sustainable and equitable social protection systems to guarantee basic income” in order to combat inequality.

Collection of signatures

Retrieval of the 1 million signatures will begin on September 25, 2020 and will normally take one year. The start is the first Friday after the 13th  basic income week [1], the end the first Friday after the 14th  basic income week. of the collection is 22th of june 2022. This exteded collection time is due to covid/corona lock down.

History of ECI-UBI

The previous ECI-UBI in 2013 was stuck at 300,000 after one year of signatures [2]. In 2013, not much was known in Europe about the Unconditional Basic Income. Nowadays there is more attention. Partly because a presidential candidate Andrew Yang wanted to give every American $ 1000 / month. The Corona crisis has also made people aware of the fact that you cannot live without income. So in that regard, there is good hope that the 1,000,000 signatures can be delivered by the more than 500 million European inhabitants.

Political turn to basic income

The ECI-UBI2020 petition is not going to ensure a basic income in every country, the countries should do that themselves. The point is that organizations such as unions, churches, political parties can no longer ignore the fact that an Unconditional Basic Income must be introduced and that Europe supports it.
What the current political parties are trying to do is to keep the economy going, which is more of the same all these years. Another solution must be found; a radical twist to the Unconditional Basic Income!

More information about the ECI-UBI 2020

The website for the citizens’ initiative is
https://eci-ubi.eu

The further description of the Citizens’ Initiative can be found here
https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2020/000003_en

Here a discussion about the initiative in English by people from various countries of Europe.